In Search of the Georgia Illuminati!

Photography: Jeff Wolfe

It was a hot Fourth of July weekend. We pulled up to an odd plot of land in the middle of nowhere, 70 miles outside of Atlanta. This was mainly farm country, a strange and remote location for the monument that caused my wife and I to break away from a conference a day early. I was finally to get up close and personal with one of America's weirdest conspiracy theories. Not many conspiracies are actual physical objects, set in stone. A conspiracy you can touch. 

The first thing I thought as we pulled up to the site was that it was much smaller than I had anticipated. It is certainly impressive in scale and construction but far from overwhelming. Erected in 1980, the mysterious Georgia Guidestones have provided unceasing fodder for proponents of New World Order theories. To the point of sloppy vigilante vandalism.

"LET THESE BE GUIDESTONES TO AN AGE OF REASON."  

I had heard plenty about the stones from sources such as Alex Jones and Mark Dice, that propose, along with religious fanatics, that the Guidestones are the template for a Luciferian world domination plot. I'm not sure I ever believed that but I was certainly intrigued enough to go check it out for myself. My wife and I were not the only ones. During the span of a couple hours that we spent there,  a half-a-dozen or more other curiosity seekers made the pilgrimage that day. At least one that I spoke with professed her love and worship of Jehovah. Another interesting man I observed was wearing a skirt and fanny-pack. I decided not to ask him any questions.

Now, having seen it for myself, I can agree that the monument and its message really are mysterious and ominous, but I can draw no definitive conclusions based on the available evidence. I love a juicy conspiracy and certainly went into it with 'Maybe Logic'. But at some point in sorting through fantastical concepts, I force myself to scrutinize the origin source of the "damming" information in question. As a general rule, when the theories are only wildly popular among Christian Fundamentalists, I tend to become very trepidatious. 

Understanding the worldview that they espouse, our timeline is 'set in stone'. We are headed for the Apocalypse and Satan is working his evil here on earth as we speak. All signs point to it, as it were. Not being of that belief, I rarely take their prophecies or signals very seriously. Not to discount all of Christian Mythology, just the doom and gloom narrative that paints us all as instruments of the damned.

Jones and Dice are both deeply wrapped up in profitable Christian doomsday media. It's their shtick. They're good at playing the characters they have created for themselves. Some plots they cook up seem plausible some of the time, even ringing a certain truth. But their consistent running off the rails into Satanic Panic bullshit turned me away from them and their right-wing brand of conspiracy. 

 

You just have to go with your instincts when trust and authenticity are in question. And while the instincts of thousands will line up behind the Info Wars Illuminati slayers, all their grandstanding appears to me as theatrics. I'm not saying I know they're wrong, I'm just saying I am reluctant to accept conclusions drawn from Theologies I have no investment in.

Another source of questionable motives, The Vigilant Citizen, also holds to the diabolically sinister theory behind the monument.

There does indeed appear to be an odd bunch of people behind the stones, who cared enough about whatever they believe in to go to the great lengths and costs to produce such an object. I'm just not prepared to say exactly who they were or for what purpose they represented. A compelling theory ties the engraved philosophy to the Rosicrucians due to the authors stated pseudonym being R.C. Christian. The R.C. possibly correlating to the Rose and Cross. 

"The Rosy Cross (also called Rose Cross and Rose Croix) is a symbol largely associated with the semi-mythical Christian Rosenkreuz, Qabbalist and alchemist and founder of the Rosicrucian Order. The Rose Cross is said to be a cross with a white rose at its centre and symbolizes the teachings of a tradition formed within the Christian tenets," – Wikipedia. 

Let's just say they were Rosicrucians for the sake of argument. If that were in fact the case, the whole spooky, paranoia surrounding the historical secret society holds no water for anyone who has done a bit of objective research into their true principles. Rosicrucianism was born out of Christian mysticism of the 17th century Enlightenment era whose values were based in spiritual and scientific progress as well as healing the sick among society. Thei's was altruistic movement based on the works of Jesus Christ. You know that figure that the right-wing conspiracists claim to be protecting from the evils of underground satanic networks?

Yes, their own manifesto, Fama Fraternitatis RC (The Fame of the Brotherhood of RC)  distinguishes their members as being selected for initiation and their activities carried out in secret – this in no way implies a dark intent. It's only by lazily lumping all sorts of disparate secret societies together in one basket that you can spread the smear around from one to another. 

For instance, Princeton's Skull and Bones fraternity is known to have been a breeding ground for future corporate and political elitists. They are a secret society, elitists are bad, therefor secret societies in general must all be bad or have political ambition. People like Alex Jones don't read source texts, they merely regurgitate past pseudo-scholorship connecting all secret societies into one grand unifying conspiracy plotting to rule the world.The fact that generation after generation passes without a successful consummation of such a plan stands as little deterrence for the theory. In that narrow and delusional narrative, the Freemasons and Rosicrucians are no different than the Bilderberg group or the Trilateral Commission. Not to mention that the Rosicrucians perhaps existed only in truth as an inspirational mythical legend. "Official" organizations branding themselves as such did not even materialize until centuries after their supposed origin. 

Returning to the Guidestones, we have no conclusive proof that the funders of the project were Rosicrucians, or decedents thereof. Based on the testimony of Wyatt Martin, president of the Granite City Bank, the only man alive who knows the true identity of R.C. Christian, it is by design that the public will never uncover who these men were. Martin, who handled the finances of the structures production, is bound to life-long secrecy by way of written contract. He's literally taking that truth to his grave. Which will always leave the question unanswered as to who this secret group of men were and exactly what their agenda was.  Although, once Martin dies, it will be up to his surviving relatives whether or not to unseal his secret stash of contract documents that contain the true name of R.C. Christian.

Having been constructed at the height of the Cold War, there's a convincing explanation that the message engraved in eight languages on the stone faces is rooted in an altruistic ambition to reset the human race, post societal collapse. To provide words of guidance and wisdom to future survivors of a nuclear winter event.

Let's have a look at what the creators of the monument set into stone:

1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
2. Guide reproduction wisely — improving fitness and diversity.
3. Unite humanity with a living new language.
4. Rule passion — faith — tradition — and all things with tempered reason.
5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8. Balance personal rights with social duties.
9. Prize truth — beauty — love — seeking harmony with the infinite.
10. Be not a cancer on the earth — Leave room for nature.

How one decodes these "Ten Commandments" comes down entirely to interpretation. Cultural conditioning largely decides the matter for most. If you want to see "a small group of Americans who seek the Age of Reason," as Satanists, so be it. Nothing will ever move you from that entrenchment. That's just not the 'Reality Tunnel' I look at the world through. Instead, what most fascinates me about the slabs are the built in astronomical features corresponding with the equinoxes and solstices.  

"Whoever the anonymous architects of the Guidestones were, they knew what they were doing: The monument is a highly engineered structure that flawlessly tracks the sun... The astrological specifications for the Guidestones were so complex that Fendley had to retain the services of an astronomer from the University of Georgia to help implement the design. The four outer stones were to be oriented based on the limits of the sun's yearly migration. The center column needed two precisely calibrated features: a hole through which the North Star would be visible at all times, and a slot that was to align with the position of the rising sun during the solstices and equinoxes. The principal component of the capstone was a 7\8-inch aperture through which a beam of sunlight would pass at noon each day, shining on the center stone to indicate the day of the year," – WIRED Magazine. 

The other really interesting piece for me is a reference at the site to a time capsule buried "six feet below" the monument. This is all the more mysterious due to the missing dates that were never etched in dictating when the capsule was buried and when it should be opened. 

Yes, I'm still plenty curious about the nature and origins of the Guidestones – but I'm not losing any sleep over them either.  And quite possibly, the "Truth", wouldn't be as interesting as we would like it to be.

Your Odd-Seeking Author

For a more thorough analysis of the location, check out this segment shot for Disinformation TV, featuring Raymond Wiley, author of the definitive book, The Georgia Guidestones: America's Most Mysterious Monument. It offers a fairly complete history of the monument and the theories surrounding it.